Mexico/United States

Author: Matthew Pacilla

Texas Mexican Mafia (Mexikanemi)

Background

The Texas Mexican Mafia (TMM) or Mexikanemi was formed by San Antonio native Heriberto “Herb” Huerta in 1984 at the Huntsville prison facility in Huntsville, Texas.[1] The original purpose of the Mexikanemi was to bring Mexican nationals and Mexican Americans together in an attempt to defend against other predatory prison gangs like the Texas Syndicate. The Texas Syndicate had preyed on weaker, non-gang-aligned Hispanic inmates within the Texas prison system, and Huerta saw an opportunity to bring together a force to combat this threat.[2]

After its creation, the Mexikanemi quickly grew into a formidable force within the Texas prison system, expanding exponentially in the gang’s first few years of existence. As members were released, the group’s focus switched from defending itself within prison walls to becoming highly involved in criminal activities outside in San Antonio, the gang’s primary headquarters. These criminal activities included drug trafficking, extortion, murder, and robbery. The Mexikanemi’s criminal enterprise soon spread to numerous other cities across Texas, including Houston, Odessa, Dallas, El Paso, Midland, and elsewhere.[3]

By the late 1990s and early 2000s, the Mexikanemi had become a powerful criminal force in Texas allied with numerous Mexican drug trafficking organizations.[4] The group’s first major transnational alliances were established with the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas, providing access to large quantities of discounted narcotics.[5] Soon after, the Mexikanemi expanded involvement into all aspects of the drug trade, including trafficking, wholesale supply, and retail sale.[6] By the time the Mexican Drug War escalated in the mid-2000s, the Texas Mexican Mafia had begun working for a range of drug trafficking organizations such as Sinaloa, Juarez, Gulf, and Zetas, trafficking narcotics into the United States as well as performing enforcement duties.[7]

Current Operating Situation

The Mexikanemi possesses a paramilitary organizational structure that includes a president, vice president, generals, captains, lieutenants, sergeants, and soldiers.[8] Heriberto Huerta, the founder of the Mexikanemi, remains president of the gang and continues to run the organization from his prison cell in the supermax federal penitentiary in Florence, Colorado.[9] Benito Alonzo is the gang’s vice-president, and Robert Carreno is believed to be the leader of the group’s outside criminal activities.[10] Huerta and Alonzo are estimated to have close to 5,000 Mexikanemi members under their control throughout Texas and parts of northern Mexico.[11]

The gang operates under a strict hierarchy with orders disseminated through an established chain of command. Each prison or outside region in which the gang operates falls under the control of an appointed general, vested with near-autocratic powers within the specified jurisdiction. However, the generals must receive authorization from the president or vice president before initiating any major action.[12] Because the Mexikanemi has members both inside and outside prison, constant communication is required between the two elements. This is usually carried out by female members of the gang who visit incarcerated members and deliver messages to outside crews.[13] Prison crews cannot give orders to outside crews and vice versa. When a member is discharged from prison, he must report to the general of an outside crew and continue generating income for the gang.[14]

The Mexikanemi is governed by an official constitution that establishes rules, procedures, responsibilities, and rights among members. The constitution was written by Huerta himself in the early years of the group and is still utilized today. According to Mexikanemi rules, membership is restricted to Mexican nationals and Mexican-Americans. All members, including the president and vice president, bear equal obligations to the gang and every member is held accountable for his own actions. Each member is responsible for recruiting new members into the gang, and each member who successfully recruits a new member is responsible for that person’s actions.[15]

The initiation process for the Texas Mexican Mafia is complex and well defined. A prospective member of Mexican heritage must be recommended by an established member of the gang to the lieutenant in charge. The prospective member is then placed on a 120-day probationary period during which the recruit will be educated on gang policy and evaluated for full entry. Probationary members must also complete gang assignments and jobs in order to prove worth and earn respect. At the end of the probationary period, the lieutenant in charge holds a vote among established members from whom a majority vote is required to gain full membership.[16]

Overview of Activities and External Relationships

The Texas Mexican Mafia is highly active in the state of Texas. The group’s primary source of income is derived from trafficking narcotics into the United States.[17] Additional income is generated through the taxation of local, street-level drug dealers throughout numerous Texas cities and within prisons under the organization’s control. Dealers who refuse to pay this 10% tax or “dime,” one of the gang’s primary sources of income, are subject to home invasions, also known as a “door kicks.”[18] Mexikanemi members are known for their brutality, killing anyone who attempts to obstruct or limit the group’s profits.

The National Drug Intelligence Center has identified the Mexikanemi as the most powerful and influential gang operating in south Texas. The group works with Mexican drug trafficking organizations, smuggling heroin, cocaine, methamphetamines, and marijuana across the U.S. border, primarily through the city of Laredo. From Laredo, the drugs are taken to San Antonio, the headquarters of the TMM, and then distributed to local dealers and a network of sellers throughout south Texas.[19]

The Mexikanemi has a host of enemies throughout the prisons of Texas and northern Mexico, including the Texas Syndicate, Raza Unida, and Barrio Azteca. Violence between the TMM and these groups is common, but differences are usually put aside in the outside world where the groups often cooperate for profit. The Zetas Organization remains the largest external patron of the Texas Mexican Mafia and frequently works with the group.[20]

Barrio Azteca

Background

The Barrio Azteca (BA) gang was formed inside the Texas prison system in 1986 by a group of Hispanic El Paso-based street gang members.[21] The gang’s founders were seeking to protect themselves against other well-established, predatory prison gangs like the Texas Syndicate and the Mexican Mafia as well as to unite the Hispanic inmate population from the El Paso area.[22] As members were released, the gang became involved in transnational crime, including a wide range of criminal activities such as drug trafficking, contract killing, extortion, human smuggling, robbery, and intimidation.[23]

Barrio Azteca members are currently housed in state and federal prisons throughout Texas and northern Mexico. The group is most heavily concentrated, however, in West Texas: the gang’s primary headquarters is located in El Paso and just across the border in Cuidad Juarez, Mexico.[24] Barrio Azteca members are often drawn from local street gangs who join the group inside prison.[25] Both Mexican nationals and Mexican Americans belong to Barrio Azteca, allowing for synchronized trans-border operations.

In 2003, Barrio Azteca entered into a strategic alliance with the Juarez drug trafficking organization, which hired the BA to smuggle narcotics into the United States.[26] The Chihuahua-based cartel also began to sell the Barrios drugs at a discounted price.[27] The relationship proved useful, and the BA ultimately evolved into the Juarez cartel’s armed wing, carrying out a variety of enforcement duties and contract killings. The Juarez organization maintains the Barrio Azteca as its primary set of enforcers today.[28]

In recent years, the Barrio Azteca gang has become well-known to law enforcement authorities alarmed at the rising levels of violence associated with the group. In 2010, BA members murdered U.S. Consulate employee Leslie Ann Enriguez Catton and her husband, Arthur Redelf, and the husband of another Consulate employee, Jorge Ceniceros, in Juarez, Mexico.[29] The murders were ordered by the Juarez cartel which believed that Enriguez was distributing U.S. passports to members of the rival Sinaloa cartel.[30] Both the FBI and the DEA now list Barrio Azteca among the most pressing regional threats.[31]

Current Operating Situation

Barrio Azteca has an estimated membership of between 2,000 – 4,000 members.[32] The organization is structured in a paramilitary-type hierarchy, with capos who lead the gang, lieutenants, sergeants, and soldiers known as “Indios.” The capo mayor presides over the command structure and is voted in by other captains in the gang.[33] Eduardo Ravelo is believed to be the top leader of the Barrio Azteca in Juarez, Mexico and is currently listed on the FBI’s top ten fugitives list.[34] Ravelo came to power as a result of his close connections to Mexican drug trafficking organizations like the Juarez cartel.[35]

The Barrio Azteca gang is composed of two major factions: one based in El Paso and its surrounding areas; and another in Ciudad Juarez and its surrounding areas.[36] The gang also has members in Chihuahua City, Midland, and Odessa. The factions are united by a “sacred code” or rules of conduct that each member follows. These rules demand loyalty and dedication to the gang above all else.[37] Only the most violent of prisoners are accepted into Barrio Azteca and new members must be recommended by “padrinos” or established members.[38] Prospect members must then gain the respect of the gang and be granted membership by the capo. Tattoos depicting ancient Aztec symbols are used to signify gang membership and feathers are used to signify rank.[39]

Overview of Activities and External Relationships

El Paso border crossing

The Barrio Azteca gang is involved in various organized criminal activities including drug trafficking, contract killing, extortion, kidnapping, robbery, and intimidation. Of these, drug trafficking is the group’s most profitable enterprise. The gang is heavily dependent on its alliance with the Juarez cartel as a source for drugs such as heroin, cocaine, marijuana, and methamphetamines at a discounted price.[40] BA members smuggle these drugs into El Paso, Texas via Ciudad Juarez, Mexico and then distribute the narcotics to retail dealers throughout Texas.[41] The ability to successfully operate on both sides of the border is a major strength of the Barrio Azteca.

To maximize profits, the Barrio Azteca charges a tax on the drugs it provides to U.S. dealers. This street tax, called a “cuota,” is strictly enforced on turf controlled by the gang. In turn, profits from the tax are used to further the gang’s activities and to purchase firearms and more drugs.[42] Dealers that do not pay the cuota are often severely beaten or even killed by members of Barrio Azteca, who possess a long-standing reputation for brutality.

The Barrio Azteca has played a crucial role in the Mexican Drug War, siding with the Juarez cartel to dominate the Ciudad Juarez-El Paso drug-trafficking corridor. Members of Barrio Azteca are often called upon to carry out hits against members of the Sinaloa cartel on behalf of the Juarez cartel in exchange for drugs, money, or weapons. This conflict still wages on today, and in recent years, the Juarez cartel and their Barrio Azteca partners have slowly lost ground in Ciudad Juarez to the Sinaloa cartel.[43]

Mexican Mafia

Background

The Mexican Mafia, also known as “La Eme,” was founded by Luis Flores, Mundo Mendoza, Joe Morgan, and Eddie Gonzales in 1957 at the Deuel Vocational Institution in Tracy, California.[44] Originally, the Mexican Mafia was formed as a way to protect members from older and more hardened Hispanic, black, and white gangs. The original members came from various street gangs in Southern California who united together for common interests and put aside their differences.[45] As the new gang expanded its numbers, a rivalry developed between the Mexican Mafia and inmate gang members from Northern California who became known as the Nuestra Familia.[46] These tensions still exist today and both gangs have formed strategic alliances with other gangs to strengthen their respective positions in the prison system. Specifically, the Mexican Mafia is now allied with the Aryan Brotherhood, and the Nuestra Familia with the Black Guerrilla Family.[47]

As the Mexican Mafia grew in the Deuel Vocational Institution, prison authorities took notice and inadvertently aided their expansion.[48] The group’s founders were dispersed to other Californian prison facilities in an attempt to break up the gang. The move, however, proved counterproductive as Mexican Mafia leaders organized new chapters, expanding the group’s influence to previously unaffected prisons.[49] Gang members were chosen because of their Mexican heritage and proclivity for violence. As the Mexican Mafia’s strength and influence grew, the group came to control much of the drug trafficking, gambling, prostitution, and smuggling inside the California prison system and, as members were released, increasingly in the streets of Los Angeles, San Diego and other California cities as well.[50]

In the early 1990’s, the Mexican Mafia imposed a tax on other street gangs in Southern California.[51] This 10% tax is still the backbone of the Mexican Mafia’s empire and is mainly enforced on the Surenos, a network of California street gangs who serve as associates of the Mexican Mafia. In addition to the tax, the Mexican Mafia established relationships with numerous Mexican drug trafficking organizations, the most important of which has been the Tijuana cartel. The Mexican Mafia buys discounted drugs from the Tijuana cartel which the gang smuggles into San Diego via Tijuana, Mexico.[52] The two criminal organizations still maintain close relations today. In 2002, a high-ranking Mexican Mafia leader, Rene “Boxer” Enriquez, defected from La Eme and went on to provide authorities with high value information on gang activities and structure.[53] The Mexican Mafia is now an organized criminal gang involved in a variety of criminal activity including murder, drug trafficking, extortion, robbery, intimidation, kidnapping, and human smuggling.

The Mexican Mafia membership is comparatively small, believed to number a few hundred true members, but these are the most hardened Hispanic inmates in Southern California and maintain control over tens of thousands of street gang members throughout Southern California, Arizona, New Mexico, and many other states.[54] To maintain control over such a vast empire, the Mexican Mafia utilizes extreme brutality and intimidation inside the prison system. Other gangs accept subordinate positions in their relations with the Mexican Mafia out of fear that when their members go to prison, they will face the well-established prison gang on foreign turf. The Surenos, a network of gangs in Southern California, function as the primary muscle of the Mexican Mafia. These groups carry out contract killings on behalf of the Mexican Mafia and serve as drug traffickers and retail drug dealers.[55] The Surenos pay a 10% tax to La Eme on all drug sales. In exchange for their services, the Mexican Mafia then protects the Surenos inside prison.[56]

La Eme is loosely structured but operates according to a strict code that members must follow, though no formal constitution exists.[57] The group is primarily made up of Mexican-American convicts and ex-convicts from the barrios of East Los Angeles.[58] Members must be of Mexican heritage and must have killed someone prior to entry into the gang. Status in the gang is based on the amount of time an individual has been a member and the amount of hits a member has carried out for the gang.[59]

The Mexican Mafia is organized in a hierarchical manner, but has no single paramount leader. This structure consists of three separate parts: members, associates, and soldiers. True members, known as “carnals,” number only about 200 and lead the gang by making all important decisions. Associates are prospective members who carry out criminal activities for the gang. Associates are often given command of a particular prison or outside neighborhood and can only become official members if voted in by existing gang members. Soldiers, comprised of the thousands of Surenos responsible for enforcing Mexican Mafia authority both inside and outside prison, make-up the backbone of the organization and perform a variety vital gang activities, for example, like collecting extortion payments for La Eme.[60]

Overview of Activities and External Relationships

The Mexican Mafia engage in a host of criminal activities such as drug trafficking, murder, extortion, intimidation, kidnapping, human smuggling, and robbery. Drug trafficking is La Eme’s most lucrative illicit activity and is facilitated through strong connections to numerous Mexican drug trafficking organizations and unquestioned control over smuggling routes in Southern California. The Mexican Mafia and the Arellano-Felix Organization, also known as the Tijuana cartel, cooperate in drug trafficking operations between Mexico and San Diego.[61] Together, they move large quantities of marijuana, heroin, methamphetamines, and cocaine into Southern California for distribution to a large network of sellers.[62] To provide the Arellano-Felix Organization access to Southern California, the Mexican Mafia charges a tax, which usually comes in the form of discounted drugs.[63]

The Mexican Mafia’s close connection to Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) constitutes another important relationship for the group. Like other local gangs, MS-13 is required to pay taxes to the Mexican Mafia in Southern California. In return, La Eme provides protection for MS-13 members in prison and assists MS-13 in fighting gangs that encroach upon their territory outside.[64] When MS-13 engages in their own drug trafficking operations through Southern California, they pay another tax to the Mexican Mafia. Many analysts believe the “13” in Mara Salvatrucha’s name (MS-13) is a symbolic reference to the group’s close relationship with the Mexican Mafia.[65]

Extortion payments extracted from gangs and drug dealers operating in Eme-controlled prisons and neighborhoods in Southern California are the largest source of the Mexican Mafia’s revenue. The Surenos, for example, one of the Mexican Mafia’s most important subordinate groups, are required to make payments to the gang in return for protection in prison.[66] Gang members that refuse to pay tax to La Eme are “green-lighted” for being beatings or murder and then robbed of their assets.[67]

Regional Analysis

Transnational Latino prison gangs constitute some of the most powerful criminal organizations in the Western Hemisphere. The influence of these groups now extends far outside prison systems into the streets and neighborhoods of many border cities. Most of these gangs evolved from very humble beginnings to highly complex and deadly organized criminal groups with local and regional monopolies over criminal activities like drug trafficking along the U.S. border. An examination of the Mexikanemi, Barrio Azteca, and Mexican Mafia reveals a great deal of similarities in background, command structure, and criminal activities.

Each displayed similarities in the original motivation for gang formation. All three groups as well as other main transnational Latino prison gangs were motivated by the need for self-defense in the racially divided U.S. prison system. Racial solidarity was seen as a way to bring Hispanic inmates together to protect against other predatory racially-organized prison gangs. As each gang expanded, the need for a code of loyalty emerged to ensure gang cohesion. Each gang possesses its own constitution, whether written or unwritten, detailing who is eligible for membership and what prospective members must to do to gain entry. Violence is the most essential tool of each of these groups, and the ruthlessness of prospective members is a central criterion for consideration. All of these gangs utilize lifetime membership in which the only way out is death.

Each of the major Latino prison gangs possesses a hierarchical command structure. Gang leaders exercise authority through distinct chains of command. This top down approach was modeled after the Italian Mafia, which many prison gangs look up to as the ideal criminal organization. Leadership in all cases is centered inside the prisons where the majority of gang leaders are serving life sentences. In spite of their incarceration, gang leaders continue recruiting new inmates and maintain contact with members on the outside. Leadership structures, however, differ across gangs with some dominated by a single leader and others controlled by ruling-elites who make important gang decisions.

Each of the Latino prison gangs underwent a process of evolution from protective entity to criminal enterprise. As each grew in numbers and members were released, leaders saw opportunities to capitalize off of group strengths and engage in for-profit criminal activity. The Mexican Mafia was the first Hispanic prison gang to effectively institute a tax system based on the use of violence to extort drug dealers on the outside and prisoners on the inside. The Mexican Mafia provides protection to street gang members, drug dealers, and average inmates in prison in exchange for a 10% tax on the illicit income of these actors. Subsequent prison gangs have copied this approach as a successful model for turning violent propensities into profit. All gangs engage in a variety of criminal activities including drug trafficking, murder, extortion, intimidation, and robbery, diversified criminal portfolios that effectively hedge against risks and threats to any one area through multifaceted operations.

Each of the groups is deeply entrenched in drug trafficking which constitutes the gangs’ primary source of income. The Mexikanemi, Barrio Azteca, and the Mexican Mafia all have direct connections with Mexican drug trafficking organizations which provide narcotics at discounted prices. All of the gangs are involved in the trafficking of marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamines through U.S. border cities like Laredo, San Diego, and El Paso. On the U.S. side of the border, the gangs supply these drugs to local retail sellers, who they also tax. This drug tax is vitally important to drug trafficking operations and universally enforced with violence or the threat of violence.